![]()
Fast Shipping
$5.95 | FREE on orders over $50
![]()
Subscribe to our Newsletter
Receive exclusive offers, news & more
![]()
🌟 New Global Competition 🌟
Enter our worldwide Soapbox Race Car Design Competition!
Betsy Ross biography for kids
Betsy Ross
Date: 1752 – 1836 (84 years old)
Who was Betsy Ross ?
Betsy Ross was a seamstress and flag maker. Some people believe that she made the first American flag during the War for Independence from a sketched design that George Washington gave her.
Download this biography for kids
Six Facts about Betsy Ross:
- Betsy had 7 children, 5 of whom lived to adulthood. She had no children with John Ross.
- At the age of 21, she eloped across the Delaware River to Gloucester, New Jersey, and was married at a tavern.
- She was the 8th of 17 children.
- She claimed to have done tailoring for George Washington.
- She has been buried in three different locations: Free Quaker burial ground at South 5th St. near Locust, Mt. Moriah Cemetery, and now on Arch Street in the courtyard adjacent to the Betsy Ross House.
- A major Philadelphia bridge is named in her honor.
Inspirational Quotes from Betsy Ross:
"Today the American knight holds the commercial supremacy of the world."
"One time during the war, I had to use the restroom, so they forced me to use it in the bushes, they treated me like a man”
"I can make a five pointed star in one snip," Betsy Ross commented to George Washington, George Ross, and Robert Morris.
Biography:
Betsy’s Childhood
Betsy was born into a Quaker family in January 1st, 1752. She was the eighth of 17 children. Like her sisters, she attended Quaker schools. She was taught to sew by her great-aunt Sarah.
After she finished her schooling at a Quaker-run school, her father apprenticed her to a local upholsterer named William Webster. At the age of 17, she met John Ross, an Anglican, and they decided to get married. This was a problem as it was forbidden to marry outside of the Quaker religion, and Betsy was expelled by her family.
In 1755, Betsy and John set up their own upholstery business together, and Betsy continued this business after John died.
Her day-to-day work involved making flags, repairing uniforms and making tents and blankets for the Continental Army.
The legend of the flag
A legend has been built up about how Betsy Ross created the first American flag, even though there is no official evidence to prove it.
The story was first publicly told after her death, many years later by her grandson, William Canby.
William explained how his grandmother had often talked about a visit she had received in late May or early June of 1776 from three men: General George Washington, Robert Morris and George Ross. During this meeting, she was shown a sketch of a flag and asked if she could make a flag just like the design. The sketch of the flag had 13 red and white stripes and 13 six-pointed stars.
Betsy is said to have agreed to make the flag, but also that she suggested a couple of changes, including arranging the stars in a circle and reducing the points on each star to five instead of six.
The evidence
There is no evidence to say for certain that Betsy Ross created the first flag. However; it is true that she was a flag maker, and there is evidence that she was paid in 1777 by the Pennsylvania State Navy Board for making “ships colors”.
On June 14, 1777, Congress formally made the Stars and Stripes as the national flag.
